Wyndgate Farm

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation about Wyndgate.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: Wyndgate might sound like a political scandal involving renewable energy—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: With an i or a y?

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: —but as the minister interjects, it is spelt with a y. Wyndgate is, in fact, a property on the eastern end of Hindmarsh Island which was purchased by the state and federal governments in 2001 to protect its high conservation values. In 2008, an additional area was purchased by the state government and added to the property. There is now 1,170 hectares of wetlands, farmland and revegetation areas. I note that the wetlands form part of the internationally listed Ramsar Convention wetlands.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: What's it's proper name? Is it Lawari?

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: I don't have the Aboriginal name. I am working from the minister's website.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: No; it's an important property for conservation.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: It's not a Dorothy Dixer; there is a legitimate question here. Constituents down at Hindmarsh Island have been in touch with me and they are very concerned that the process of turning this property into a conservation park, under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, may have stalled. Again, according to the minister's website, the department says that it proposes to proclaim it as a conservation park in the future. Correspondence that I have seen suggests that the—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: I think I already have.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: It will be a quick answer then. The correspondence I have suggests that it was supposed to be declared a national park in 2015. The minister may well surprise me by suggesting that it has already been done, but my information was that it hadn't yet happened. So, my question to the minister is—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: The department's got form in slowing these things down.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: Anyway, my question is: is it still the government's intention to declare the land a conservation park, if in fact it hasn't already; is there any delay; and when might a proclamation be made?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:05): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. I think it deserves an incredibly long answer. I might talk about our commitment to our parks across the state before I get to the specific area of Lawari. South Australia's parks and reserves—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: You've got to wait for the text message.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: 18 minutes in.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Thank you, Stephen, I will try my best to make sure that he gets another question in at some stage. South Australia's parks and reserves present South Australians and visitors with the great opportunity to enjoy and benefit from their engagement with our natural environment, and to unlock economic potential from those interactions, of course, in respect to regional tourism most particularly. The South Australian government recognises the importance of tourists and regional growth in these investment opportunities that arise, and nature-based tourism represents one of the biggest growing sectors of the South Australian economy.

We understand that making South Australia a nature-based tourism destination for domestic, interstate and international travellers will lead to significant economic development and job creation. I think, just this week, I spoke about the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary as being one of those areas that we have great hopes for in terms of involving local communities. Again, I gave a great deal of detail about that and how we are going to work with communities coming together, called The Collective. Local governments are involved, local Indigenous communities are involved, local Vietnamese market farmers are involved, and many others, because they see the opportunities for that area to the north of Adelaide and they want to be part of it at the very beginning.

We are home to more than 300 parks that showcase our diverse range of natural attractions, including Seal Bay, Flinders Ranges, Cleland, the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail and, of course, the Naracoorte Caves. Because of this commitment, the government, as part of its 2014 election commitments, dedicated an additional $300,000 over two years to increase the size of our parks and reserves by adding new parks and, of course, increasing the size of the ones we currently have.

We believe this will protect more of our state's unique environment. We have enhanced our protected area system in South Australia through the protection area strategy, Conserving Nature 2012–2020: A Strategy for Establishing a System of Protected Areas in South Australia.

It is worth remembering and reminding ourselves that, when Labor came to government in South Australia in 2002, there was just 70,000 hectares of the state that had wilderness protection area status—just 70,000 hectares. Over the past 15 years, 74 new parks have been proclaimed, and there have been 87 additions to our parks. There are now a total of 356 reserves constituted under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972, the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 and the Crown Land Management Act 2009. Of these, 22, I am advised, are national parks.

An important new national park I mentioned earlier this week was created last October, the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park (Winaityinaityi Pangkara). I am advised that on 8 August the Port Gawler Conservation Park was reclassified to become part of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park. The government is committed to the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary, proposed to stretch for 60 kilometres up the coast, north of Adelaide. As I mentioned yesterday, I think it was, it has now become officially classified as part of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, and I think has the potential to be an exciting drawcard for international visitors and birdwatchers from interstate and overseas, to support tourism and also environmental programs in South Australia.

Other recent additions proclaimed in March 2017—and now I refer to a piece of paper that has been thrust into my hand, which I think is from the South Australian Government Gazette of 21 March 2017—'National Parks and Wildlife (Lawari Conservation Park) Proclamation 2017'. It goes into the short title, commencement and constitution, with all the sections, including Hundred of Nangkita, County of Hindmarsh, and on and on and on, which I think the honourable member will find is exactly where he thinks Wyndgate was once, and is now Lawari Conservation Park.

This is situated, I am advised, within an area of internationally important wetlands, formally recognised as the Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Ramsar Reserve. It comprises two former grazing properties, one of which was the former Wyndgate property. It was purchased with assistance from the commonwealth for inclusion in the protected area system. It covers important wetlands containing a diverse array of habitat, supporting a high number of threatened fish and water bird species.

Additionally, the honourable member might like to know (before he comes back with another question) that an additional 3,949 hectares of the Ngarkat Conservation Park was added on the northern boundary of this vast mallee park, which is south of Lameroo. An addition to the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park was the Sacred Canyon, a highly important Aboriginal cultural site. This area is located approximately 12 kilometres south-east of Wilpena, adjoining the southern boundary of the park. It comprises about 298 hectares, I am advised.

Sacred Canyon, Mr President, as you would know, is of profound cultural and spiritual significance to the local Adnyamathanha people and the site preserves ancient engravings of images representing animal tracks, people and waterholes in the sandstone walls of the canyon. I could go on with more details about other parks but I might leave that for a further question for the Hon. Mark Parnell to ask at a later stage.